White House insists Trump's 'covfefe' tweet has meaning

White House press secretary Sean Spicer has weighed in on a tweet by President Donald Trump which used the nonsensical word 'covfefe', insisting there are people who "know exactly what he meant".

Mr Trump's latest late-night tweet was seized on by Twitter users, who wasted no time creating memes and merchandise based on the made up word, which was likely a typo.

"Despite the constant negative press covfefe [sic]," the tweet read.

It stayed up for around six hours before it was deleted.

Mr Spicer was asked about the strange tweet during a scheduled press briefing. He didn't think it was cause for people to be concerned about the President's rogue tweets, offering up this 77-character answer: "I think the President and a small group of people know exactly what he meant."

His answer was met with laughter from the press corps.

After Mr Trump's offending tweet was deleted the President took ownership of the mistake, seemingly enjoying the attention and the notifications he was waking up to.